Tag: Latina Women

Keeping Score: Activist Narges Mohammadi and Economist Claudia Goldin Awarded Nobel Prizes; U.S. Scores a C for Protection of LGBTQ+ Rights

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Federal funding for childcare expired on Oct. 1; Iranian activist and feminist economist are honored with Nobel Prizes; gunman fires two rounds into Planned Parenthood clinic in Montana; California to protect abortion providers from out-of-state lawsuits; Republicans in Congress attempt to repeal FACE Act protecting abortion clinics; cost of raising a child in the U.S. skyrockets; Latina women hit hardest by state-level abortion bans; and more.

I Was Low-Income and Undocumented, But I Dreamed of College. Now I’m ACLU’s Deputy National Political Director.

With recent judicial blows to affirmative action and DACA, and attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, many underrepresented students are left wondering: Now what?

Do they belong in higher education? Will they have the opportunity to go to college? Will they have a successful career? Will they ever make it? Growing up Latina, low-income and undocumented, Maribel Hernández Rivera had the same questions. Now, she is the ACLU’s deputy national policy director and is searching for ways to support and mentor the next generation.

The First Tool to Name Obstetric Racism Might Finally Push Policymakers Into Action

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Awareness of the U.S. maternal health crisis has increased—but a parallel crisis of human rights violations against pregnant and postpartum people remains invisible or misunderstood. By convening two People’s Tribunals to End Obstetric Violence and Obstetric Racism before the end of the year, we aim to change that. The first will happen on Oct. 6 in New York City at the NYU Law School, and the second on Dec. 1 in Memphis, at BRIDGES USA. 

We cannot fix the maternal mortality problem without fixing the human rights problem at its core.

War on Women Report: Abortions Resume in Wisconsin; How Republicans Plan to Enable Anti-Abortion Violence

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U.S. patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. But day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. The fight is far from over. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Let’s not forget what was thrown our way last month: Co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine was ousted from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for sexist and racist comments; a Nebraska mom was sentenced to two years in prison after helping her daughter acquire abortion pills; Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown and subsequent cuts to WIC, childcare and housing aid; and more.

Mexican Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationwide, Requires Federal Health Services to Offer Abortion

The Mexican Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, Sept. 6, that national laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights. The sweeping decision entirely removed abortion from the federal penal code. The ruling also required the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it. In a statement, Mexico’s Supreme Court said the “criminalization of abortion constitutes an act of gender-based violence and discrimination, as it perpetuates the stereotype that women and people with the capacity to get pregnant can only freely exercise their sexuality to procreate and reinforces the gender role that imposes motherhood as a compulsory destiny.”

The increased access to abortion in Mexico stands in stark contrast to decreasing access in the United States, where 14 states now ban abortion entirely and another eight states ban abortion early in pregnancy.

Women Are Improving the Federal Bench: Milestones and Historic Firsts

Since 2021, the Senate has confirmed 140 lifetime judges. Two-thirds (94) are women, and more than 40 percent (60) are women of color, including Native American women. At the circuit court level, three-fourths of these confirmed judges are women, and more than half are women of color. (This stands in stark contrast to former President Trump’s appointees, including his nomination of zero Black judges, and just one Latina judge, to federal circuit courts.)

But this progress can’t stop here.

The professional and demographic diversity these judges bring to our federal courts matters. Our diverse nation needs judges who reflect and represent all of us. And we know this: Demographic and professional diversity on our courts has been shown to increase public trust in the judiciary and improve judicial decision-making.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: How Black Suffragists Fought for Voting Rights; Women’s (In)Equality Day; Former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell Challenges Rick Scott

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Despite Women’s Equality Day celebrations, the disparities in women’s representation—particularly in employment, wages and government—are still significantly low compared to our male counterparts; the numerous Black suffragists forgotten by history: Mary Church Terrell, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Fannie Barrier Williams, Sojourner Truth, Lugenia Burns Hope, Mary McLeod Bethune and Nannie Helen Burroughs; Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is running for Senate, posing a challenge to incumbent Republican Senator Rick Scott; and more.

Halfway to the Sustainable Development Goals: ‘We Are Still Far From Achieving Them,’ Say Feminists

The United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) convened this year from July 10-19 to assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the halfway point between their adoption and 2030 deadline. The SDGs are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives designed to serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future,” ranging from ending poverty, gender inequality and hunger, to promoting clean water and sustainability.

As HLPF came to a close, we spoke to four feminist activists from the Women’s Major Group about their experience at the convening—and their work fighting for gender-just implementation of the SDGs.